First Official Images of THE DARK TOWER Featuring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey

The cover of Entertainment Weekly‘s yearly Comic-Con preview issue has been released, and it features The Dark Tower, It gives us our first official look at Idris Elba as The Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as The Man in Black.

Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower saga spans eight novels along with a few assorted short stories and comic books. New movie “picks elements from throughout these writings to assemble a new take on the story of Roland the Gunslinger (Idris Elba) and his pursuit of the sorcerer known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), who intends to collapse the tower and rule the ruins and chaos alongside a sinister force known as the Crimson King.”

The upcoming issue will be packed full of information regarding the film, and they offer a list of some of what you will find including another photo of Elba at the bottom:

• Exclusive photos, showing the vast plains of Mid-World, the shadowy Dixie Pig hideaway of the demons who infest our world, and the visions of a boy named Jake Chambers (Tom Holloway) who is either the key to saving the mythic Tower or the instrument of its destruction.
• Revelations from director Nikolaj Arcel (the Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair, and one of King’s lifelong Constant Readers) about where the story picks up, which elements from the novels are being explored – and which are being left out.
• Elba on the redemption story of Roland, who has “forgotten the face of his father” (or lost his way) in his relentless pursuit of the Man in Black. The actor also comments for the first time about race-swapping the Gunslinger, who until now has always been depicted as white.
• McConaughey on the loneliness of evil, the reasons his villain “reveres” the hero chasing him, and why The Man in Black has taken a real shine to present-day New York City.
• Finally, as an extra treat, King himself weighs in on the film, explains what he asked to change in the script, and provides new insight into how the Tower saga connects to some of his other books, like The Shining, The Stand, and one long-ago short story.

The movie also stars Abbey Lee as Tirana and Fran Kranz as Pimli withKatheryn Winnick, Jackie Earl Haley, and Richard Sayre.

The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum.  It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.

The Dark Tower is set to be released on February 17th, 2017.